Quiescence
by Kohi wo Nomu
Summary: "Quiescence: in a state or period of inactivity or dormancy" The brothers had split up for their nightly patrol, Mikey, Raph, and Leo returned home. Companion piece to Graffiti.
1. Orange

**Quiescence**

"Quiescence: in a state or period of inactivity or dormancy" The brothers had split up for their nightly patrol. Mikey, Raph, and Leo returned home. Companion piece to Graffiti.

 **A/N: This is actually a companion piece to a little one-shot called Graffiti, but is completely understandable if read alone. This wasn't exactly what I had in the beginning, but it just kinda spiraled into its own thing. There are three chapters, once for each brother, all fairly short. Please review if you enjoyed, it really does encourage me to write more. If you want to see Donnie's side of the story, please read and review Graffiti.**

Chapter One: Orange

...

Wait two minutes...redial... _ring...ring_...voicemail...hang up.

Wait two minutes...redial... _ring...ring_...voicemail...hang up.

Wait two minutes...redial... _ring...ring_...voicemail...hang up.

Wait two minutes...redial... _ring...ring_...voicemail...hang up.

Wait two minutes...redial... _ring...ring_...voicemail...hang up.

Wait two minutes...

...redial...

... _ring_...

... _ring_...

...voicemail...

...hang up.

Again.

Again.

Again...

...again.

Another two minutes passed. Michelangelo repeated the steps, exactly. His vision was fuzzy again, but he blinked that weakness away; crying wasn't going to help. 'Donnie's okay. He went to the junkyard, like Leo said.' He just got _distracted_. 'Donnie always gets distracted when he's working on something important.' He just didn't realize what time it was. All Mikey had to do was keep calling until Donnie answered. Then he could remind his older brother that they were supposed to meet back up two...tears filled his eyes again, but he shook his head viciously, two hours and forty three minutes ago.

He stared at the small screen of his TPhone. The one Donnie had rebuilt for him numerous times because he couldn't seem to go a week without somehow breaking it. His thumb taped the speed dial contact labeled 'Donatello', because no matter how much he tried, Donnie wouldn't let him change it to a nickname. He'd said he would use "Genius," why wouldn't Donnie let him? Probably because he was gonna use "Mr. Angry-Face" for Raph. It rang and rang, but it was Donnie's voicemail message that answered, so again, Mikey ended the call.

The rhythmic thumps that had helped punctuate the seconds of the two minute intervals was slowing again. Raph hit the punching bag with extra force and gave a yell of frustration before marching across the lair to the pit where Leo was sitting on the old sofa, staring absently at the blank tv.

Another two minutes had passed. Mikey tapped the redial button. It rang. It went to voice mail. He hung up.

"It's been three hours!" Raph boomed.

"Two hours and forty six minutes," Mikey corrected quietly. Less than a minute until he would try again.

If Raph had heard, he didn't acknowledge, "Do you really think Donnie would have gone to the junkyard and lost track of this much time?! Something's happened, Fearless, and we've lost too much time already! We need to go out there!"

The moment the time changed, Mikey hit redial. It rang and rang. Donnie's voicemail message answered. Mikey hung up. He trained his eyes back on the clock. Wait two more minutes.

"Where, Raph?! We don't even know where to start looking," Leo spat back.

"Yeah? And who's fault is that?! You're the one who said to split up!"

"Me?! You wanted to go alone tonight! You took off before the rest of us!"

Raph growled, and Miley looked up, Raph looked like he was ready to hit Leo. "We have to do something! Track his phone!"

"You think I didn't try that hours ago?" Leo asked, "I don't know Donnie's programs, I don't know how to it, do you?!"

Raph growled loudly and threw a powerful punch that landed with a soft thud on the sofa cushion. "When he gets back, the first thing he's gonna do is show us all how to do that!"

The clock had ticked over while he'd been watching his brothers, he scrambled to hit redial, and the process repeated. It rang. Donnie's voicemail message answered. He hung up. Donnie was going to come back. He'd promised to check the thermo-thing on the freezer, Ice Cream Kitty had been looking slightly melty lately. Donnie wouldn't let Ice Cream Kitty melt.

The freckled turtle looked back up at Raph's tired sigh, "Shred-head has him, Leo. We can't just leave him there."

"We don't know that," their oldest brother said forcefully. "Shredder's been quiet lately."

"Yeah, because he's been planning to kidnap Donnie and tonight he finally did!"

"Why? What would Shredder want with him?"

Raph leaned closer to his brother, "Why does Shredder do anything?! To hurt Master Splinter! To hurt us! Does it matter?! We need to go out and _look_!"

"We need a plan."

"What have you been doing for the last three hours?!"

The clock changed, Mikey hit redial, it rang once, then stopped. He answered! _Donnie answered_! "Dude!" Mikey yelled, too excited to wait for a greeting, "You finally answered! Where are-"

He couldn't finish his sentence. Raph had vaulted over the couch and snatched the phone out of his hand and was holding the smaller turtle at arms length as he screamed into the phone with all of the pent up fear and rage of the past two hours and fifty three minutes, "Where the fuck are you?!"

Mikey was struggling to get his phone back when Raph's hand suddenly fell from Mikey's shell. The smaller turtle crashed to the floor as Raph froze, pulled the phone from his ear and stared at the screen, "April?" Mikey ducked away as his older brother punched the wall and fumed, if possible, more angry than he had been moments ago. "We've been worried sick thinking something happened and he's visiting his _girlfriend_?! For fuck's sake. Why the hell didn't he answer?! God damn that fucking...I'm gonna kill him. I'm gonna drag his wannbe genius ass back here and beat the shit out of him. He's not gonna have a shell left by the time I'm fucking done."

Leo helped his youngest brother stand and stared at the tantrum for a moment before sighing, "Calm down. And watch your language."

"I ain't gonna watch my fucking language when he pulls this kind of shit!" He grit his teeth before grunting into the phone, "Give the phone to my idiot brother."

The color drained from Raph's face, turning it a sickly grey-green, his entire body went rigid, his voice suddenly turned fearful, "Cleaned up? Is he hurt?"

Mikey gasped, "Donnie's hurt?!" Trying to lean in and stand as tall as possible to put his ear next to Raph's to hear what was being said.

Raph growled and pushed his youngest brother back to the floor. " _Hi, Raph_?! That's what you say?! _Hi, Raph_?! What the hell bro?! You're fucking hurt and you didn't call?! What are these damn phones you made us for?!" The red masked turtle must have noticed that anger had been creeping back into his voice; his next words were softer, with less of an edge, "What happened? How bad?" He listened for a moment, "How long were you out?! Why didn't you call? We would have picked you up!" Another pause, "We're coming to pick you up." Raph tensed again and Mikey shrank back as his older brother started yelling again, "You stay right there! Leo! Get the ShellRaiser ready. We're picking him up!" Leo was already in the garage before Raph finished his sentence. Raph held out his hand to help his youngest brother up; Mikey took it, gladly. "Shut up! We're on our way!"

Raph lowered the phone and pushed it into Miley's hand, but wasn't relaxing as he tugged Mikey toward the garage.

The youngest allowed himself to be dragged along, filled with uncertainty, "He's okay, right Raph? You just talked to him."

His older brother was gnashing his teeth, "Concussion, cuts and bruises. That's what he said. Donnie always downplays this shit. You know that. He said he went to April cause she was _closer_." They both jumped into their seats quickly and Leo started driving immediately. "April's ain't that far from the lair. There was a reason he needed something closer. Cuts and bruises don't take three hours to patch up. There's something he ain't tellin' us."

Mikey couldn't help the whine that escaped. Leo didn't say anything, but Mikey noticed, their oldest brother did drive faster.


	2. Red

**A/N: Whew. This chapter was harder to write than I originally planned. I find it weird, because it's characters like as Mikey I have the hardest time with, but his chapter practically wrote itself. Raph is such a good big brother. He's gruff and can't control his anger, but just look at how he dealt with Spike, no one hurts those he loves. Has anyone else noticed that while the others all say "Master Splinter" or "Sansei," when it's something emotional, Raph always uses "father?" Go check! I had to rewind my Hulu a couple times to make sure it was him; while I have watched all five seasons, I still sometimes confuse Donnie's voice for Raph's because when I was a kid watching and obsessing over TMNT in the '80s and '90s, that was Raph! Now, enough of that before I start to feel old.**

 **Chapter Two: Red**

Raph shifted impatiently in his seat. Too many emotions bubbled within him. He'd spoken to Donnie. He knew his younger brother was alive and safe. But he knew Donnie was hiding something, too. Whoever had hurt his brother was going to pay. Donnie was the one who always patched them up, but when he needed the patching, he was the worst. After the past three hours, Raph wasn't sure if he could tolerate his brother trivializing something potentially dangerous.

 _Why hadn't he called?_

Raph couldn't shake the idea that something terrible had still happened. April had said it took a long time to clean him up.

 _Shouldn't they have heard Mikey call?_

He _needed_ to see Donnie. Hearing his brother's voice could only do so much. His younger brother had sounded...off...not himself. He needed to make sure that his brother was whole and well enough and _not_ what he was imagining. Because he was imagining some pretty bad shit. He should have asked who had hurt him over the phone. He could have had some idea of what he was going to find. Cuts, bruises, concussion...Kraang lasers would have meant burns. He hadn't said burns. That meant Foot. _Shredder_. Shredder had hurt his little brother. Katanas were sharp. They would leave cuts. Deep ones if you weren't incredibly diligent. Deep would take longer to clean and treat.

Donnie had said cut, not stabbed.

He wanted to scream, to lash out at something, but everything within punching distance was too delicate to take a hit. It would be just like Donnie to say "cut" when he meant "stabbed" and use some twist of English to explain how it was technically correct.

Bruises could mean anything. A black eye to damaged organs.

It wasn't that bad. It couldn't be. He'd spoken to Donnie. Donnie was awake and coherent and as obnoxious as always.

No. That wasn't right. Donnie hadn't argued. Raph had said stay and...well, he'd hung up before Donnie could actually argue so maybe that didn't mean anything either.

Concussion was bad. He should know, he'd been through "Doctor Donnie's" incessant prodding and questions and only being allowed to nap for an hour at a time to make sure there wasn't brain damage enough times to have the procedure memorized. And if his brother had been knocked out for as long as it sounded like he had, that was really bad.

He needed to go find Shredder's minions and destroy them.

No. He needed to make sure Donnie was okay first. He'd take the first watch for Donnie's concussion. That's what he needed to do.

 _And Fearless needed to drive faster!_

Yelling at Leo wasn't fair. Not that it stopped him. He knew his older brother was driving as fast as he could.

He clenched his fists so tight his knuckles were white.

He shouldn't have argued with Leo before patrol. He shouldn't have left the lair before his brothers. Temper, temper, temper. He didn't even remember why he'd been so upset. Why did he always have to fight everything? He didn't want to! It just happened. Someone would say or do something and before he could tell himself to stop and think, he reacted!

 _That's how you won fights._

 _But that wasn't going to help right now._

Did April know Donnie always said his injuries were less severe than they actually were? Like he had to prove he was tough enough to take it? Would she know how to listen between his words to get the true prognosis? That was the problem, wasn't it? Even if Raph or Leo or Mikey was doing the patching, Donnie had to guide them through it. They all knew basic first aid, but anything needing more than a Band-Aid was Donnie's job.

Donnie took care of them. What would they do if they needed to take care of Donnie?

Raph absently ran his fingers over the jagged open crack in his upper plastron, freezing at a sudden realization: _what if Donnie's shell was cracked?!_ He remembered screaming when he'd busted his shell and not much else. He should have paid attention! Donnie had explained the whole process as he'd done it. But, that was five years ago, and Raph had been more focused on trying not to cry because he'd needed to reassure Mikey that he wasn't going to die.

He growled, feeling useless, and glanced over to his brothers. Leo was being stoic; not that he expected anything less from their Fearless Leader. No, Leo was worried, he could see it in his older brother's posture and grip of the steering wheel. Would it kill Leo to tell them he was scared, too?

Mikey was silent and still. That was never a good thing. He shouldn't have told Mikey he thought Donnie was hiding something.

Raph needed to see Donnie first.

It wasn't just about his selfish need to make sure Donnie was okay. He didn't want Mikey to see if it was really bad. Mikey couldn't handle something like that.

He suppressed to urge to yell, it would only scare Mikey more. He needed to see Donnie.

Raphael didn't wait. The ShellRaiser wasn't even fully stopped before he had the door open and was climbing the fire escape to April's window. He rapped on the window, probably a little harder than necessary, and tapped his foot impatiently, controlling the urge to just break it. The instant it was open he was through and marching to Donnie, who was just sitting on April's bed. He would apologize to April later, first he needed to know what his brother was hiding.

Raph's eyes searched every inch of his brother. Shallow scrapes covered his younger brother's plastron; they weren't deep enough to have bled. They looked like road rash more than anything. Small, already scabbed scrapes dotted his front, that was all! No. Donnie was trying to hide them. His younger brother had his arms folded across his plastron, obscuring the bruises on his wrists and upper arms. Donnie was also pointedly turning his head away, but the deep bruise mostly covered by his mask stood out with vivid clarity. That wasn't from a fist, the shape was wrong.

"Who?!" He forced the word from his mouth. They would pay for hurting his brother.

Donnie curled further into himself, but didn't answer.

Mikey and Leo were talking to April, but Raph ignored them, his focus solely on Donatello's stubborn refusal to answer. He growled, _"Who?!"_ with more force than he'd intended.

"I don't know," Donnie finally answered quietly.

Raph couldn't believe it. "What do you mean, _you don't know_?!" All he needed was a name, a description, something so he'd know who to pound.

Raph was forced back as Donnie suddenly jumped up, using the few inches of extra height to try to tower over Raph in a rage, "They jumped me and hit me over the head! I'm sorry I didn't pay attention to their faces while I was face down on the pavement in an alley!"

Terrifying scenarios that Raph had tried not to think about all flashed in his mind at once. How long had Donnie been trapped? Those bruises on his arms meant he was, at the very least, held down. Donnie had probably been terrified and knew that no help was coming.

His little brother had been alone, beaten...

And Raph had no one to blame but himself. He'd taken off because he'd lost his temper with Leo. His father was right, his temper was going to get one of them killed some day.

Tears pricked his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. _Donnie was safe. They were going home._ He pulled his taller brother into a tight embrace. It wasn't long enough for Donnie to even return, and did nothing to assuage his guilt, but it was what he needed, proof Donnie was fine.

He pushed away, swiping a hand under his nose. _Donnie was safe. They were going home._ He repeated it like a mantra. And he'd get Donnie to tell him what happened, even if he had to beat it out of him. "Right," he said, trying to keep the emotion from his voice, "concussion." He sniffed again, "We know the drill. I'll take first watch. Let's get you home." He pushed Donnie gently toward the window, keeping himself close enough to his brother to touch, just in case he needed to remind himself that Donnie was okay. He finally glanced at April, she was smiling, albeit tiredly, and he was suddenly so grateful that she was a part of his family. "Thanks for taking care of our brother. We've got it from here."

He guided Donnie through the window and down the fire escape, still wary of his brother's condition.

Donnie wasn't stumbling or anything. That was good. Didn't seem to be nauseous, either. Another good sign.

His brother was going to be fine, he'd make sure of it.


	3. Blue

**A/N: Apologies for taking so long to get this chapter up. Work was more strenuous than usual. I can relate to Donnie, machines don't repair themselves.**

 **BLUE**

Leonardo gripped the steering wheel of the ShellRaiser tightly. Master Splinter had told him time and time again that second guessing himself achieved nothing. But how could he not? _He_ had made the decision to patrol separately. _He_ had been mad at Raphael for not following orders, _he_ had decided that he'd wanted to clear his head without Michelangelo's childish pranks or Donatello's superfluous technical explanations. It had been _his_ decision to wait in the lair because Donnie was always late when they patrolled alone because he always went to the junkyard. It was _his_ fault that their brother had been caught alone...had been forced to find the closest help while injured.

Raph was right.

They had no idea how long Donnie had been unconscious. Their purple masked brother wasn't responding to Raph's interrogation. Leonardo wanted to tell Raph to stop yelling at Donnie, but the truth was, he wanted to know, too. He hadn't gotten a very good look when Raphael had pushed Donnie through the window, down to the ShellRaiser, but he hadn't seen any bandages. April had said she thought Donnie had a concussion, concussions were bad enough.

Donatello could have died tonight.

He'd told them to go on patrol, not even coordinating where each of them would be! He hadn't even known where to start looking. He hadn't gotten past the first password on Donnie's computer to track his brother's TPhone. Donnie could have slowly bled to death in some random part of the city and he would have just been sitting in the lair the whole time! Donnie could have been captured by the Kraang or the Foot or, hell, the stupid Purple Dragons wouldn't mind revenge for all the embarrassment.

What if the police or the news had found him? They would have locked Donnie up, what they'd feared their whole lives.

He tried to draw in a steadying breath.

He'd thought that having Master Splinter make him leader would magically gift him the confidence to be leader. Master Splinter believed he could do it.

Where was that sense of _right_ that all leaders seemed to just have?

Captain Ryan always knew what to do!

But Captain Ryan lost crew members all the time. Nameless, faceless characters on a stupid cartoon.

Leonardo didn't have the luxury of a few hundred crew members on a space ship; he had himself and his three brothers.

Even Captain Ryan had trouble making decisions when it came to those close to him. Well, except for Crankshaw...

Why did he always compare himself to a fictional character?! Anyone could pretend to make tough decisions! It was a cartoon, there were no real consequences to anything! Captain Ryan always knew what to do because the situations were specifically created for him to get out of. The real world didn't work like that. His family's problems weren't magically solved in twenty-four minutes.

Not every ending was happy.

In real life, if he made the wrong decision, someone could die. There was no mind transfer and special torpedo to bring them back. Dead was dead. Final. Donnie said they'd jumped him and hit him on the head. Was it only once? What if it hadn't? The rest of them had just been sitting in the lair!

What if...

What if...

What if...

There would always be too many "what ifs."

"I can't tell you what I don't know," Donnie sounded like he was fed up with Raphael's inquisition. "You can keep asking, but the answer isn't going to change! I don't know who it was! Will you lay off? You're making my headache worse."

Raphael gave an unhappy grunt, but didn't ask any more questions.

"Here, Donnie," Mikey said quietly. Leonardo glanced over his shoulder, Mikey was gently holding an ice pack from the first aid kit to Donnie's head.

Raph was hunched in his chair, arms crossed, silently fuming.

"Thanks."

Leonardo turned his attention back to the road. Raphael said he was going to take the first watch over Donatello. He would take the second himself.

He needed to meditate; clear his head.

He couldn't afford to make a mistake like that again.

He couldn't let one of his brother's die because of a bad call.

No matter how much Raphael argued, _no more solo patrols._

Especially not before they found whomever had hurt Donnie.


	4. Purple

**A/N: And here's the last chapter! Well, technically it's the beginning. Most of this was written before April's part. The flashback in italics was supposed to be in Graffiti, but after I finished April's bit, it felt excessively dark and unnecessary. I'm finally getting back to what this fic was supposed to be: a Donnie/Raph brother piece. If you enjoyed, please leave a review. If you hated it, please review so I can know what to fix or do better next time. If you'd like me to somehow come up with a fic about getting revenge on these punks, say so. It's weird how a tiny idea that came from researching another story could spiral into something bigger with a much darker tone than originally intended. Hm. Anyway, Cowabunga! Er...Booyakasha!**

 **PURPLE**

Raphael hadn't left Donnie's side. Raph was sitting in Donnie's room, his a chair pulled right up against the bed where the purple masked turtle's lay. This was not helping his the pounding in his skull. "You can come in and wake me up in an while, Raph. You don't have to babysit me." Raph's staring was starting to unnerve him.

Raph shook his head, "Uh-uh. I'm stayin' right here."

Donnie sighed and adjusted the blankets. All he wanted was to rest and forget. You know what? It didn't matter, let Raph stare at him while he slept.

"Aren't you gonna take off your mask?" Raph asked softly.

Donnie wanted to say, no, but the knot was uncomfortable to sleep on. He untied it and sat up to hang it in its usual place. When he turned back, the expression on his brother's face was stricken. He rolled his eyes, yeah, the bruise was bad, he'd taken a look at it in the mirror of April's bathroom, but it wasn't any worse than anything they'd had before. He laid down, his carapace to his brother and pulled the blankets back up.

It was a few minutes later before Raph spoke again, quietly, his voice sounding defeated, "You smell like girl soap."

With a grumble, Donnie turned to face Raph, but his annoyance drained away at the sight of his older brother. Raph was clenching and unclenching his fists, staring at the floor. Donnie suddenly couldn't seem to look at his brother, "Yeah, I-I took a shower right when I got to April's. That alley was dirty."

Raph nodded, his eyes still on the floor. "That bruise ain't from a fist."

Donnie sighed, all he wanted was to sleep. "No."

"You didn't recognize them?"

"No."

"Was it the Purple Dragons?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

Donnie growled in frustration, "I know the Purple Dragons, Raph. No. They weren't with the Purple Dragons."

Raph paused for an uncomfortably long moment then continued, "What did they hit you with?"

"Raph, I'm tired. Contrary to what most people think, rest is actually what you're supposed to do when you have a concussion. You're going to wake me up every hour to make sure it doesn't get worse, but what I really need right now is less inquisition, more sleep."

"O-okay, Donnie. I'll be right here if you need anything."

Donnie huffed and closed his eyes.

 _Donatello ran, flipping across the rooftops, surprised that Leo had split them up. He'd been in his lab all afternoon and hadn't seen it, but the fight his red and blue clad brothers had gotten into must have been a big one. He didn't mind the time alone to think, he just felt a little awkward wondering aimlessly through the city._

 _He should have gone to the junkyard. Mikey had asked him to take a look at the freezer, that it wasn't keeping a constant temperature. Donnie hoped it was something simple, the thermostat or compressor. It was old, if one of the lines was leaking he'd have to find a whole new unit. R-12 was highly regulated for its effects on the ozone layer, it was also expensive. Not that R-134a was any easier to come by. He should have checked the thing before he'd left the lair. For all he knew, nothing was wrong with the old fridge, Mikey had probably just left the door open again._

 _Oh, well. It was too late now. He had a little less than fifteen minutes to get back to the lair. Plenty of time. He'd actually make it back early. That was a first. He was usually the last one to return when they patrolled solo. He'd been late so often that his family had stopped expecting him to be on time._

 _The rattle of a spray can echoed from the alley below and he grinned, peering over the edge. Two kids, probably a year or two younger than him were spray painting a wall. His grin widened, patrol had been completely uneventful. It wasn't as if his brothers were expecting him to be back right when Leo had said, anyway. Besides, it was two kids! He could still be home on time. He landed behind the boys with hardly a rustle of his gear. They were young, they didn't deserve a beating, if he startled them they'd probably run home. "Isn't it a little late for you two to be out?"_

 _The younger dropped his can as they both spun. They looked ready to bolt for half a second before the older one started laughing, the younger followed suit a moment later._

 _"What the hell are you supposed to be?!" The oldest yelled, laughing hard enough to almost double over._

 _Okay, so maybe he wasn't as intimidating as Raph or Leo, but he was still a five foot eight inch mutated turtle! That should be at least a little scary to a thirteen year old. The two ignored him and went back to their tagging, continuing to chuckle._

 _Donnie narrowed his eyes, quickly loosing his temper. Withdrawing his staff, he had yelled, "Hey," but the boys just shook their heads, continuing their mocking conversation as if he wasn't there. Donnie growled, he didn't want to beat up two younger kids, but he could still stop them! He raised his staff, ready to hit one of the dumpsters, hoping the noise would intimidate them, when something slammed into him from behind, forcing him face first into the asphalt. His weapon clattered away from his outstretched hand as strong fingers looped around his wrists and upper arms. He thrashed, attempting to free himself when a heavy weight settled over his legs. He pulled his limbs, but couldn't budge. He was trapped._

 _The unmistakeable sound of an aluminum baseball bat dragging on the cement echoed before he felt the thump-clang of it hitting the side of his carapace none too gently. It wasn't hard enough to hurt, exactly, but it wasn't a pleasant tap._

 _"What the hell is this?" The guy with the baseball bat said, moving into Donnie's limited view. He wasn't a kid. He was older, probably just out of high school, not an ounce of fat on his bulky frame, "You some kind of alien? Mutant?"_

 _The turtle snarled and narrowed his eyes hoping he didn't radiate fear, "Let me up and I'll show you," he tried to sound as menacing as Raph at his angriest._

 _The bat tapped his shell again. "Be nice, Mr. Alien."_

 _"You think he's really an alien, not just a guy in a suit, Jimmy?" The guy holding Donnie's right arm asked._

 _"Don't know, Kyle. Why don't we knock open a little hole and find out?" The bat prodded his shell softly, mocking, as if looking for a weak spot._

 _No! Panic seized the turtle. He redoubled his efforts to free his arms, but he didn't have the leverage. These guys knew how to incapacitate a stronger opponent. His mind was drawing formulae, his shell was strong, but not that strong. The mass of a bat could easily be swung with enough velocity to created the force necessary to rupture the scutes and bone of his carapace. He was going to die. Right here in the middle of this stupid alley. Not fighting the Shredder or the Kraang or saving the damn world, but because he hadn't been paying attention because two kids had laughed at him._

 _Morbid thoughts raced unbidden through his mind. Would his brothers find him? They weren't expecting him to be on time! It would be at least another hour before they would even think to come looking. Oh, why couldn't he be known for being punctual?! Leo hadn't assigned them areas either! He'd lost his patience with Raph and had just told Donnie and Mikey to go! His brothers wouldn't know where to start looking. He hadn't shown any of them how to use the GPS locators installed in their phones. They would find out watching the news that some weird thing had been discovered in a pool of blood. Would Carlos Chiang O'Brien Gambe give the report or was he worthy of a segment on Grody to the Max? Would he get a grave? 'Here lies Donatello Hamato,' chiseled in stone, just like in the movies? Or would it be 'Hamato Donatello' drawn in his father's beautiful shodō._

 _Would April miss him?_

 _No! He wasn't going to just die! He was a ninja! Of the Hamato Clan! He was going to fight until his last breath!_

 _The bat just kept tapping._

 _"Come on, man, don't do that," one of the spray painters said. "I don't want to see guts and stuff, even if it is alien."_

 _"Yeah," the other tagger chimed in, "besides, if I get blood on my pants my mom's gonna kill me."_

 _The baseball bat continued tapping. Donnie tried to wrench himself free, but the hands on his upper arms and wrists tightened painfully. "Well, we can't just let this freak leave! We gotta teach him a lesson. This part of town is ours." Jimmy, the obvious leader, tapped the bat against Donnie's cheek. "Ah!" He exclaimed before quickly lifting the bat and swinging it down on the center of his shell. Donatello gasped, it hurt, but the shell hadn't cracked. "Nicky! Give me one of those cans." The older of the kids ran up and handed a can of spray paint to their leader. "This is our territory, freak. We're not gonna just give it to a turtle."_

 _Donnie growled and snapped his teeth, nearly catching the leader's ankle, before the leader shoved his head onto the pavement and held it there._

 _"Hey! I'm creating art here. Don't mess me up!"_

 _The turtle silently fumed as the acrid scent of paint filled the air. He struggled in the tight grip of the three he couldn't see, keenly aware of the gravel scraping his skin and plastron._

 _The hand lifted off of his head and he looked the leader right in the eye. Jimmy smiled at him, full of condescension. "Nicky, Damian, your turn. Make sure this thing doesn't forget who we are."_

 _The two kids stepped up hesitantly, their faces full of realization of exactly what they'd gotten themselves into when joining this group. Donnie licked at the blood he could feel at the corner of his mouth. Maybe these kids could see what the life they were choosing truly required?_

 _The leader was unimpressed by their hesitation, "Come on, you two! Do it!"_

 _"He can't get up?"_

 _"Nah!" The one holding his left arm responded, tightening his grip._

 _"It didn't move when Jimmy was doing his thing, did it?" The one holding his legs added._

 _The boys stepped closer and Donnie jerked himself again, earning him a "tsk" from Jimmy and a blast of paint to the face._

 _The cans continued to rattle and hiss for a few minutes, every so often paint hit his skin, cold and wet. The entire time the hands holding him down never loosened a fraction._

 _When the noise stopped Jimmy laughed. "Good. Here, Damian," he handed the younger of the two kids the bat. "Make sure he doesn't follow us."_

 _The boy's eyes were wide with terror, "W-wha..?" he stammered._

 _"Time to grow up, kid. You wanna roll with us, you can't be a sissy."_

 _Donnie growled, "You want my head bashed in, you do it! Don't make some little kid do your dirty work for you!"_

 _"You asked us to watch out for your mom, right? After she got mugged on the way home from work?" Jimmy asked. "You want her to end up in the hospital again?" The boy clung to the bat, shaking his head, "Then do it."_

 _Donnie gasped, bracing himself as well as he could. The boy set the bat on the side of Donnie's head before drawing it back._

 _Donatello closed his eyes, silently apologized to his father and brothers, awaiting the blow._

Donnie's eyes snapped open, his heart pounding. Raph had his hand out, looking afraid to touch his younger brother. "You okay?" Raph asked.

"Yeah," Donnie whispered.

Raph sat for a few moments, his fists clenched tightly before he spoke. "We forget, you know, 'cause of April and her dad and Casey and Mr. Murakami. Master Splinter came down here after he got mutated because he knew. We aren't like them Donnie. Humans don't like things that are different. I mean, they can't even get along with themselves. They'll kill us, just because. Or worse, lock us in some lab and cut us up. Sensei knew. That's why he didn't want us to go to the surface. Humans don't need a reason to want to hurt us. They just will."

Donnie curled himself under the blankets. "I-it wasn't just that, Raph. I messed up. I lost my temper and wasn't paying attention. I didn't even hear them. There were four of them. I'm supposed to be a ninja. They tackled me and held me down and I knew you guys wouldn't even think to look for me because I'm always late." He drew a shuddering breath, trying desperately not to cry in front of his tough brother. If anything, he'd blame it on the concussion. "I tried, Raph," he begged his brother to understand, to not laugh at him for being weak, "I tried to get away. They weren't trained or anything! I just messed up, and they capitalized on it." Tears gathered in his eyes against his will, "How can I call myself a ninja, let alone a Hamato? You were right."

Raph let out a growl of frustration that made Donnie jump, "That had better be the concussion talkin'," Raph ground out, surprising his brother. "So you messed up, big deal. We all have. Do you know what you did wrong? Learn from it. Don't just lay there cryin' and let your own head defeat you. Fight back. If I didn't think you could handle yourself, do you think I'd fight beside you? That I'd trust you to have my back?"

Donnie finally looked into his brother's eyes, they were red and angry, but it wasn't directed at him. "You...you're not mad at me?"

Raph scoffed, "Oh, I'm mad at you. I'm fucking pissed. When you get better, I'm probably gonna beat the shell off you. After I get the guys who did this to you. You said four? Good, Mikey and Leo'll want some of this and that'll still leave me with two."

"We don't even know who they are," Donnie pointed out.

"Doesn't matter. You're smart, you'll track 'em down for us."

Donnie took a deep breath, the tension he'd had all night loosing slightly. "Thanks, Raph."

"Shut up. I'm not letting you off the hook that easy. You are going to tell me what happened. I just can't beat it out of you right now. Better do it the easy way while you can."

Donatello faked a yawn, he'd tell his family eventually, but not right then. He'd also make sure to leave out the part about the spray paint. "Sleep, first. Doctor's orders."

Raph mumbled something impolite before shaking his head, "Whatever. Fine. But you aren't off the hook. I'm resetting the timer." He made a show of twisting the old egg timer to sixty minutes and set it on the bed. "I'm waking you up again in an hour." He furrowed his brow, "It's supposed to be every hour, right?"

Donnie shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position, yawning, for real, "There's no set interval. An hour is easy to remember and works as well as any."

Raph put his hand on Donnie's head, "An hour. Get some rest, little brother."


End file.
